For Love of the Game

For Love of the Game

Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner) is having a bad day. His girlfriend Jane (Kelly Preston, stunning as ever) says she's leaving, and his boss (Brian Cox) says he's selling the business and ace employee Billy may be out of job. Sounds like business as usual for an old-fashioned veteran. However, the business is baseball and for Billy Chapel, the 40-year old former all-star for the Detroit Tigers, it means his career--and his life--is at a crossroads. Although it is no Bull Durham, For Love of the Game finds a solid and very believable role for Costner. The film is based on Michael Shaara's (The Killer Angels) stream-of-consciousness novel (the rough manuscript was found after his death 1988). The entire film takes place on Billy's day on the mound against the Yankees, a meaningless late-season game for the Tigers, but everything for Billy. In flashbacks, he lingers over his long relationship with Jane and his baseball career (from World Series heroism to a career-threatening injury). His one viable link to the game at hand is his catcher, played winningly by John C. Reilly. Costner, like Chapel, is looking for one more great performance, but the film is too simplistic and loopy at times to resonate. The love story has an extra helping of cuteness, and legendary baseball announcer Vin Scully nearly takes on a leading role, waxing grandiloquent. It's no grand slam, but a solid double. --Doug Thomas

Genre: Drama, Romance, Sport
Stars: Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, Jena Malone
Production: Universal Pictures
  7 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.6
Metacritic:
43
Rotten Tomatoes:
46%
  For Love of the Game Screenplay »
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PG-13
Year:
1999
137
Website
11,582 Views

Billy Chapel:
Clear the mechanism.

Jane Aubrey:
It's not mine.

Billy Chapel:
You mean it doubles as a flashlight?

Jane Aubrey:
I need a regular guy. Not the guy in the Old Spice commercials.

Billy Chapel:
It was Right Guard.

Jane Aubrey:
What?

Billy Chapel:
It was Right Guard, not Old Spice.

Jane Aubrey:
I was being metaphorical.

Vin Scully:
After 19 years in the big leagues, 40 year old Billy Chapel has trudged to the mound for over 4000 innings. But tonight, he's pitching against time, he's pitching against the future, against age, against ending. Tonight, he will make the fateful walk to the loneliest spot in the world, the pitching mound at Yankee Stadium, to push the sun back into the sky and give us one more day of summer.

Jane Aubrey:
Do you lose very much?

Billy Chapel:
I lose. I've lost 134 times.

Jane Aubrey:
You count them?

Billy Chapel:
We count everything.

Billy Chapel:
The game doesn't stink, Mr. Wheeler. It's a great game.

Heather:
So, are you my mom's boyfriend?

Billy Chapel:
I'm not sure.

Heather:
But you've slept with her.

Billy Chapel:
Sam Tuttle. I can't think of a better reason not to be a Yankee.

Billy Chapel:
I ain't carryin' no books. Where's the pillows?

Jane Aubrey:
What if my face was all scraped off and I was totally disfigured and had no arms and legs and I was completely paralyzed. Would you still love me?

Billy Chapel:
No. But we could still be friends.

Billy Chapel:
I don't know if I have anything left.

Gus Sinski:
You just throw whatever you got, whatever's left. The boys are all here for you. We're gonna be awesome for you right now!

Gus Sinski:
You know, a lot of little bottles makes a big bottle, Chapy

Jane Aubrey:
So, when you're away, I'll live my life and you'll live yours. And none of this stupid bullshit "why didn't you call me?" crap. And "what you do when you're not with me has nothing to do with me" and vice versa. No questions asked, no worrying, no obsessing.

Billy Chapel:
That sounded perfect.

Vin Scully:
The cathedral that is Yankee Stadium belongs to a Chapel.

Billy Chapel:
Tell them I'm through, "for the love of the game", Billy Chapel

Jane Aubrey:
You ever gotten your heart broken?

Billy Chapel:
Yeah. When we lost the pennant in '87.

Wreck it.

"Clear the Mechanism"

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